getchar

Defined in header `<stdio.h>`
int getchar(void);

Reads the next character from stdin.

Equivalent to getc(stdin).

Parameters

(none)

Return value

The obtained character on success or EOF on failure.

If the failure has been caused by end-of-file condition, additionally sets the eof indicator (see feof()) on stdin. If the failure has been caused by some other error, sets the error indicator (see ferror()) on stdin.

Example

getchar with error checking

Run this code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>

int main(void)
{ 
    int ch;
    while ((ch=getchar()) != EOF)   /* read/print "abcde" from stdin */
          printf("%c", ch);

    /* Test reason for reaching EOF. */
    if (feof(stdin))          /* if failure caused by end-of-file condition */
       puts("End of file reached");
    else if (ferror(stdin))   /* if failure caused by some other error      */
         {
            perror("getchar()");
            fprintf(stderr,"getchar() failed in file%s at line #%d\n", __FILE__,__LINE__-9);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
         }

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Output:

abcde
End of file reached

References

C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

7.21.7.6 The getchar function (p: 332)

C99 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1999):

7.19.7.6 The getchar function (p: 298)

C89/C90 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990):

4.9.7.6 The getchar function

Language
Headers
Type support
Program utilities
Variadic function support
Error handling
Dynamic memory management
Date and time utilities
Strings library
Algorithms
Numerics
Input/output support
Localization support
Atomic operations (C11)
Thread support (C11)
Technical Specifications

getchar

Parameters

Return value

Example

References

See also